Thursday, November 10, 2011

FO Friday #27 - Twisted Teal

It is Remembrance Day in Canada today. It is a day when we honor the memories and the lives of those who have served our country to protect its people. I am looking forward to taking my kids to one of the Remembrance Day ceremonies in town today. It is a day that holds a lot of meaning for me personally and as a Canadian. I feel very lucky to be able to raise my kids to appreciate the importance of it.

For me, this is also the last day before I hit total gong-show Christmas mode. Because our Thanksgiving is in October, the retail marketing folk here try very hard to start the Christmas season the day after Hallowe'en. My friends and family agree that it really should be after Remembrance Day. I will be celebrating the start to the season on Saturday by going to my favourite Christmas Market. I am very excited... despite the snow in the forecast that is supposed to start tonight - bleh.

I have another Christmas present to share today. I have knit my husband's cousin a pair of lovely fingerless mittens. I love them soooo much that it will be tough to part with them. Fortunately, the intended recipient is one of my favourite people who proved her worth as a hand knit recipient when I gave her my Honey Cowl earlier this year. She even texted me this week to say she was happy for a cold day because she got to start wearing it again. Now that's a quality person to devote some knitting time to.

I really enjoyed this pattern and it's a good thing because I ended up knitting three mittens. When I pulled this project together at the last minute before I left for my trip, I quickly glanced at other projects on Rav. So, I knew there was an errata for the cable chart because it is backwards in the pattern book. I printed of the new chart and off I went. Unfortunately, I didn't discover that there was an error in the placement of the thumb on the right mitten until I had finished the first mitten and discovered that the cable was wayyy off center. I was surprised that a pattern in such a well known book as The Knitter's Book of Wool would have so many errors... and a little annoyed. That being said, I know I will knit these again.

My stitch gauge was pretty much right on but my row gauge was off so I added an extra cable repeat before the thumb and another before I cast off.

The yarn is the ever amazing Madelinetosh. This time it's Vintage. The saturation of the baltic colourway is amazing. I didn't block these so I don't know how colourfast it is. All I can say is my love affair with the Tosh continues and I see no end in sight.

My husband had the ring on my right hand made for me while we werein Australia for our 5 year anniversary. It was a total surprise. And yes, he is all that and a bag of chips ; )

I absolutely love these mitts (I also bought matching teal socks in New Zealand to go with them) but I think next time I'm going to try a more rustic wool as the designer suggests. It will be interesting to compare and contrast the two projects.

Whether or it is Remembrance Day in your neck of the woods, I hope you get a moment today to enjoy the love of those who are important to you

That baltic color is one of my favs! Nice job on the mitts! It's crazy how quick retailers bring out the Christmas isn't it? We heard Christmas tunes blaring throughout a few stores this past week already!

I can definitely imagine those being hard to part with. They're stunning - colour and pattern alike - and at least they're going to someone who'll appreciate them. I've been working a shawl in madeline tosh recently, and it really is a dream to work with, so I totally understand your love affair!

The mitts are beautiful and will make a wonderful gift for such a knit worthy person. I am trying to put off thinking about Christmas for another week. Thank you for the lovely poem in honor of Remembrance (Veterans) Day.